Antikythera
by Secret Ninja Plushie
Summary: A mystical Greecian mechanism brings out everyone's 'inside demons'. What happens when Willow's is worst of all?sequel to From the Desk of Dawn


"Oo, look Dawnie, the new Ancient Greece exhibit is open!" Willow enthused, nudging the teenager with her elbow and pointing out a newspaper article.

"Oo, goody." Dawn said absently, not looking up from her geometry homework

"We should go this saturday!"

Now Dawn looked up from her homework and gave the redhead a look of pure shock, "School? On a saturday?"

"Not school, silly," Willow waved away the notion like she was swatting a pesky fly, "Just an extracurricular learning activity!" the witch grinned her eyes widening as if to say, 'So? What about it? Huh, huh?'

"I dunno, Will..."

"Pleaaaase? I'll... I'll do your geometry for you!"

The teenager concidered this for a bit before sighing, "Fine... But you gotta make it look like I did it, leave maybe one or two mistakes in there okay?"

The redhead nodded as the book was handed to her and she got to work, looking up briefly to flash Dawn a big smile, "We'll have fun tomorrow, I promise!"

That night Kennedy was woken up by a whimpering near her ear, she turned as careful as she could so as not to wake Willow up, only to find it was Willow who was making the sound. Her brow furrowed with worry as she gently shook the sleeping redhead.

Will's Dream POV

_"Tara! come back to me!" Willow reached out to a far off figure, she was back in Sunnydale, in her old room on the floor, blood spattered on her blouse. Just like on that day..._

_"Baby, please! Come back!" she choked out, tears streaking down her cheeks._

_"Willow..." the figure called, reaching out as well, "Willow..."_

_"Tara!" The redhead stumbled to her feet, finding that the scenery had changed and now she was at the Bronze, on Tara's birthday so many years ago..._

_"Dance with me?" The blonde offered her hand and Willow took it, allowing herself to be led to the dance floor._

_"Tara--" Willow was hushed by a soft finger on her lips as a slow song started up and the blonde witch rested her head on Willow's shoulder and they swayed to the music._

_"Be strong Willow, I know it hurts." she whispered in the redhead's ear, making her shiver._

_"How can you? You haven't lost the one you love..." Willow rejoined, almost angry at Tara for being so calm and collected when all she wanted to do was curl up and cry in her arms._

_Tara's face fell, "I have lost you, just that same as you've lost me. Just stay strong Willow..."_

_Now Willow held the blonde at arms length, "Why, is somthing happening? Is somthing going to hurt me?" worry crept into her voice, though she willed it not to._

_"Willow..." Tara's voice sounded far away, as though she were in the distance instead of right next to her._

_"What?" she asked urgently as Tara's image began to fade._

"Willow!" Kennedy shook the redhead a bit harder and succedded in waking the witch up with a wrenching gasp.

"Tara!" Willow sat up, looking around wildly before realization sunk in and she began to blink back tears.

"Are you okay honey?" Kennedy asked softly, cupping the redhead's face with her hand as she found it hard to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill over. Without waiting for a reply the slayer took Willow into her arms and let her sob over yet another 'Tara Nightmare'.

Morning found Kennedy in the training room, punching the crap out of a bag, hands taped and making slapping sounds as the bag swun to and fro as she swung punches.

"Hey Kennedy," Buffy greeted as she walked into the training room in grey sweats and tank top, she stopped to watch the swinging bag for a moment before folding her arms across her chest and asked, "anything you need to talk about?"

"Dunno what... you're talking... about!" Kennedy grunted between the few more blows she administered to the bag.

The ceiling creaked dangerously and Buffy looked up warily, cocking an eyebrow, "You sure? Because the last time Faith got upset and tore the bag down Giles had a hissy fit."

The younger slayer reluctantly ceased her pounding on the bag and began to forcefully un-tape her knuckles, "Fine, I got somthing to talk about. Let's talk!" she said huffily, throwing the tape aside and matching Buffy's stance, arms folded across her chest in perfect mimic.

"So, what's got you so angry at the bag over there?" Buffy asked calmly, unfolding her arms and sidleing over to a vault horse to sit on it.

For a moment Kennedy concidered not answering and instead ingauging the blonde in combat to release her anger. But she didn't, instead chewing her lip before muttering, "Tara..."

Buffy was slightly taken aback by this, shooting the brunette a quizzical look.

"Well, not so much Tara... Willow's been having more of the nightmares... the ones where she sees Tara."

"Ah," The blonde nodded sagely, "She still misses her."

"It's been a whole two years! How much more time does she need?!" Kennedy asked in a pique, clenching her fist and then unclenching it over and over. "And it's not that she still dreams about her, but she won't tell me how I can _help_! She won't tell me how to help her!" Now she swung around and backhanded the bag as if it was personally responsible for this offense.

"Kenn, you just gotta give her time, she'll tell you eventually. I'm sure it's bugging her too." Buffy hopped down from the vault horse, continuing, "You don't know Will like I do--"

"Damn right, I know her better! I'm the one sleeping with her, not you! You. **Don't.** **Know**!" At this she lunged at the blonde, needing an outlet for all her pent up anger.

Buffy was ready and she blocked the first punch Kennedy sent her way, grabbing and holding tight to the fist as it hit her hand. Unable to pull her arm back for another punch, the brunette satisfied herself by yanking her elder slayer's arm towards her. Using the momentum Kennedy had made, Buffy ducked to miss the punch aimed at her face and tackled Kennedy around the middle. Both toppling to the floor, they wrestled furiously for a while before Buffy pinned Kennedy's shoulders with her knees and her wrists above her head.

"I think..." Buffy said between the heavy breaths she was taking, "You need... to calm down."

Kennedy struggled a bit more as a last ditch effort before giving up. "Fine." She said sulkily as Buffy let her up. "Just don't mention this conversation to Will, kay?" her voice had gotten a bit softer now as she headed out of the training room, it took Buffy's super slayer hearing to catch it.

"I won't."

Willow sighed contentedly, walking among the ancient artifacts, arm looped through Dawn's as they made their way to the new Ancient Greece Exhibit.

"Ooh, look there, Dawnie, that must be really old!" The red head whispered excitedly, dragging the bored teenager to a small pedestel in the middle of the room, red velvet ropes keeping people just far enough fromt he precious object.

"Wow cool. Old junk."

"Yeah I know, isn't it?" Asked Willow, clearly missing the sarcasem in Dawn's voice, "It's the Antikythera Mechanism, some believed it was a calendar, some thought it was a map, and now they're saying it's a calculator." the redhead nodded sagley, "Science and it's little bugs."

"Uh yeah, pretty cool, I guess." Dawn scrutinized the strange old box before her. Had it been faintly glowing a moment before? No, it was just her eyes playing tricks on her...

"I think it's a map." Willow said decicively, pulling a reluctant Dawn to the next artifact. As soon as the two were off though, the box started to glow faintly again, this time it pulsated with the transparent green energy it was emmiting. Slowly a thin trail of the green haze crept towards Willow and Dawn's turned backs, coming to rest on them and sink into thier bodies.

The two took no notice of this, however, and walked on through the museum.


End file.
